"So you're telling me that you want to go back to the giant planet covered in ice?" Krill wondered skeptically.

Commander Vir lounged a bit to the side in his chair. He was wearing his uniform, as he had taken to doing over the past few months, a good idea considering, his formal, and unexpected meetings with the GA were becoming more and more common.

Krill wasn't entirely sure how it happened, or entirely sure how he felt about it, but he had, somehow, and in some way become the defacto military leader for the entire galaxy, this young, crazy, and sort of air-headed human, not that he doubted the man's intelligence. He had gotten over that assumption months ago, but still there was something about him that just didn't scream I am ready to command an army for the entire Galaxy cluster.

Perhaps it had something to do with the ridiculous hat he was wearing: red and white, with a white pom-pom at the very end sort of floppy and hanging towards one of his shoulders. When Krill had taken the time to ask why he was wearing the stupid thing, the Commander had pointed out, "Because it's December." like that was supposed to explain anything.

"And why do you want to go back to the icy death planet?"

The human leaned back in his seat leaning over to glance at their coordinates on screen, "One word Krill, morale."

"Morale." "Yes, the collective good will and team spirit of the crew."

"I know what the word means." Krill muttered in annoyance, "What I don't understand is how near freezing conditions, snow, and the possibility of lie-ending blizzards has anything to do with it."

The man stood for his seat adjusting his stupid hat and turning to walk towards the door, "Oh don't be such a grinch."

"A what?"

The human didn't answer, but laughed at him and stepped down the stairs with a clatter, "Months on end in the blackness of space, surrounded by the void and the monotonous routine of military work, nothing that seems like home, only a few comforts to remember our planet and during that time of year where we would wish nothing more than to be home with our families."

Krill scuttled after him, "Your point being?"

Commander Vir paused in the hallway to look down at krill, "My point being Krill, is if the crew feels anything like I do, they miss their families, and homesickness is bad for productivity, and it's bad for mental health, so I plan on giving them a small bit of home, and maybe some fun because I take the mental health and satisfaction of my crew very seriously."

He turned back on his heels and began walking.

"What is so special about December?" Krill wondered vaguely aware that the phrase indicated a specific time of year, though for the life of him, he didn't know what was so special about it.

"Christian appropriated pagan holidays hijacked by corporate powerhouses to make money by guilt tripping the already financially struggling capitalist populace into buying gifts for people they don't like."

"What?"

The man just grinned at him, "Tradition, Krill. Glorious pointless tradition, and a reason to eat too much and spend time with people you like, unless you are forced to spend time with people you don't like, in which case, I argue, you are doing it wrong."

"Does the rest of the crew know about your little stunt."

"yes , of course they do. I put out a memmo last week, and I have something special planned for the people who have to keep working as well, so no one is left out."

"Don't suppose I can opt out of this."

He wasn't entirely sure if the human blinked or winked at him, "Not a chance."

Krill sighed deeply but followed anyway walking into one of the forward cargo bays surprised to find the pace nearly empty accept for piles and piles of beanbags, blankets and strange looking chairs. Someone had set up a projector towards the front taking up one entire wall of the cargo area. The humans that lounged around were dressed as easily as physically possible in what krill had come to recognize as night-ware. Some of them even wore clothing that suggested at earth animals with big floppy ears on top of hoods."

The deck quartermaster had appropriated the coffee maker from the mess hall and was using it to heat up water, which was then being mixed into another beverage and passed around to the lounging humans along with strange stricks of red and white.

"Didn't we have a holiday like last week/"

He waved a hand, "Not really, that was jus an excuse to eat more food."

"Everything with you is an excuse to eat more food." Krill grumbled

Commander Vir paused by one of the beanbags where Sunny was lounging craning her head back to look at him, "Have fun, don't die." She said

He playfully kicked at her beanbag, "Don't Tempt me, anyway, you guys have access to every Christmas movie for the past two thousand years, well ok except for the last century due to copyright issues, but beyond that you should be able to find SOMETHING to watch."

She waved him off with a dismissive hand as they walked to the edge of the cargo bay where another moderately large group of humans was suiting up in their winter gear. Krill grumbled in annoyance, but crawled into the containment tube. Commander Vir knocked on the glass offering Krill the 'scarf' the human's mother had once made for Krill before closing the pod.

Commander Vir moved to dress up with the others walking over to hang out with the humans Krill would have said were his close group of friends including the marines like Ramirez, Maverick, and CJ, but also including Narobi and Dr. Katie.

Dr. Katie waved at him from insider her massive fur-lined coat looking like a puffed up marshmallow.

"Alright, you guys load those boxes onto the shuttles and we can get going. Remember to gear up inside the ship, it is pretty cold out there, but the ice field is perfect, so we should be good."

The other humans nodded in agreement and did as told excitedly running into the shuttles. Commander Vir took the helm of his own, never willing to let someone else pilot if he could help, and they headed into the atmosphere of the massive ice planet. Krill grumpily sat in the back wondering just what kind of shenanigans he should be expecting today, with the humans you never knew.

Upon reaching the ground, Commander Vir powered down the shuttle, and ordered Ramirez to cut open one of the boxes. He did so with pleasure and, Krill was confused to watch as the humans began pulling strange pairs of shoes from the box.

Shoes with metal blades on the feet.

Katie squealed in delight.

Maverick grinned, "Good thing you brought a doctor,eh?'

"Watch me concuss myself." Narobi sighed

Krill stiffened, statements like that didn't bode well coming from humans. He glanced towards Commander Vir who grabbed a pair of the shoes from a box, and was just then lacing them up on his feet. How they expected to stand up was beyond him. Twisting and ankle was a horrible possibility.

At the end of the line Ramirez already had his skates done up, and now stood on the hard metal floor.

Krill waited for him to tip over, but somehow, and in some way, the human balanced himself on a surface area that was no more than a couple of millimeters wide.

"What are you doing." Krill ventured warily.

"We have an entire planet covered in ice, so we are going to ice skate on it, duh."

Krill's panic was immediate. Ice, metal, and a sharp surface clearly DESIGNED to reduce friction.

After they subdued Krill's conniption fit, the shuttle door was opened. Krill watched from his enclosure in barely contained panic as Maverick stepped out onto the blinding ice, one boot and then the other. She wobbled for a second gliding out onto the cie. She wobbled again, "YOu should have worn helmets at LEAST."

But in the next moment Maverick slid one of her feet to the side, and then the other in a strange walking motion. Before Krill could complain further, the human was suddenly gliding across the ice in a wide arc laughing and increasing speed as the edges of the skates bit into the clear surface of blue tinted ice, leaving a trail of white behind her.

Dr. Katie followed after wobbling and giggling.

Narobi was not so brave stepping onto the ice as she clutched onto one of the shuttles struts wobbling and slipping, nearly falling over on two occasions muttering about how her ancestors didn't lend her very well to the ice. Commander Vir laughed at her expense, and she glowered at him, but broke into a wide grin as soon as he stepped onto the ice with a confident swagger only to fall into a flailing wheeling mess tripping backwards to land with a sharp thud on the cie and go skidding outwards.

Krill winced in concern angry that he couldn't go back on the human.

The others broke into laughter and pointing.

Maverick made it a point to skate a circle around him.

Krill didn't see how the man planned on getting up, but watched as he placed his hands on the ground driving the picks of his skates into the ice before slowly wobbling to his feet, "I meant to do that." he announced, only to be laughed at for a second time.

It was from then on that Krill watched in horror and anxiety as the humans slid slipped and wobbled about on the ice. More than once he watched the humans plow into each other, fall over, slip backwards or something else horrible.

Narobi had finally let go of the shuttle, but immediately regretted it sliding past krill with her arms flailing screaming for help.

She was laughed at, until she ended up on her but and began scooting back towards the shuttle.

When they DID manage to remain upright they sometimes managed to look graceful, like leaves caught in a gust of wind. Maverick and Katie were ok, and managed to remain upright normally, though they had created a game of racing each other, and then sliding to the ground to go skidding on their sides across the ice to see who could go further.

Commander Vir could remain on his feet, but it was nothing pretty.

Ramirez laughed and hooted from where he sat beside Krill on the open ramp his feet resting straight out on the ice.

Commander Vir skidded to an awkward flailing halt just before him after a while, "hey, aren't you coming."

Krill detected a subtle hint of embarrassment on the marine's face, "I'm actually just having fun watching."

"Do you not know how." THe commander wondered.

The marine shuffled his feet, "it's not that I don't know how."

"Then come on." He reached down grabbing ramirez by the hand and hauling him to his feet nearly toppling backwards, but Ramirez caught the two of them, and they slid out onto the ice. Commander Vir grinned, "Well that worked a bit better than I had intended."

Ramirez let him go, "Ok, ok, you got me."

He then skated a tight circle around the Commander, and there was.... Something different about the way he moved as if he was testing the ice.

He watched the marine effortlessly slid forward cutting between the figures and around his flailing counterparts slowly gaining speed. He crossed one foot over the other and turned around. Krill covered his eyes expecting the human to go plowing into the ice.

That was when the human began skating backwards hands behind his back.

It looked effortless.

He slid past Dr. Katie who whistled, "WHOO Ramirez, you go."

The others had turned to look now, as the human cut backwards in a wide circle, his legs crossing back and forth and back and forth with ease. The backwards skate changed as he added a couple of quick spins while still maintaining his wide parabola. The other humans slid to a stop.

Ramirez came around another corner one leg fully off the ground.

Krill grimaced.

Someone had had music playing from a speaker by one of the other ships, and as the field grew quiet, the human picked up on the beat skating backwards, and in circles and little twists.Arms were thrown in and he rolled like a stalk of grass caught in high wind, never falling over.

One leg, two legs, little spins.

And that's when the idiot started jumping, tiny little hops at first, using the picks at the front of the skates to gain traction before leaping into the air. Then he'd jump into the air and turn landing on the other foot.

The humans were cheering.

There was no way this was real, it was so strange. The amount of coordination flexibility and trust in his own body was phenomenal and impossible. There was no way. Ramirez rolled past backwards bringing his arms into a tight spin that had him as a blur, then he'd open up his arms to slow his momentum skating out of it again.

Commander Vir whistled, "Ramirez, you sexy bastard, do a flip." Ramirez rolled past again, "Are you flirting with me commander?" He teased

Commander Vir crossed his arms grinning not backing down, "Stop being so talented and you want have this problem."

He slid back the other way on one leg.

"Buy me dinner first."

"I'll buy you dinner if you do a flip." The human slid backwards in the other direction again gaining speed.

"I haven't warmed up."

"Do it."

The human spun in another circle now legs crossing and then leaped into the air. Krill squealed and went to hide his eyes but couldn't look away.

One

Two

Three rotations.

He hit the ground on one leg arms out to the side and slid backwards in a tight circle with a grace almost inhuman. Together the humans erupted into cheers clapping and hollering.

"You owe me dinner."

Commander Vir laughed, "That was a spin not a flip, but I guess I'll consider it."

Ramirez frowned, "No no, you'll get what you want."

Even commander vir was beginning to look concerned now, "I you don't have to, you win."

"No, you insisted."

The humans had gone to shaking their heads now giving warning calls. This was bad this as very very bad. Ramirez skated out and then turned around moving forward slowly at a middling speed and then jumped throwing his feet over his head. Light ran over blades as, for a moment his head was oriented towards the ground and his feet towards the sky, and then he landed, feet first.

It was the first time Krill had seen him off balance. He skidded failed and then fell backwards landing on his hands as he slid into the circle of humans.

But despite his fall the humans erupted with cheering.

"Holy shit." The commander said looking surprised.

"You owe me dinner for a month." Ramirez pointed out chin jutting in defiance.

Commander Vir hauld him to his feet, "Fine, you win, I wont even argue because that was fucking awesome. Where did you learn to do that?"

He shuffled his feet in embarrassment, "Er.... well. Because I was training for the Olympics."

"WHAT. Well why didn't you go, you're so good."

He shrugged, "Because ice skaters don't go to space. I wanted to serve humanity, so I joined the UNSC instead. I still skate when I can, but I don't regret what I did."

The entire crew was alerted to their return, not because they really intended it, but because there was no point in trying to stop Krill's tirade and no way to quiet him once he had gotten going, "OUTRAGEOUS STUPIDITY. Gallivanting around without the use of FRICTION strapping knives to your feet and then dancing on it. Twisted ankles, concussions, broken tailbones, all so that you can look cool. And you aren't even happy with just being able to transport, but you have to be able to do tricks throwing ourselves off balance on purpose jumping into the air DOING FLIPS ON ICE WHERE THERE IS NO FRICTION." Commander Vir walked past the staring crew carrying the angry Vrul under one arm.

"Don't mind us."

"And you call this morale! I should have known that when you said this it was going to involve ENDANGERING PEOPLE LIVES."

He walked out of the room and Krill's voice slowly faded down the hall.

"INCONCEIVABLE BARBARISM, IDIOCY, LUNACY. A QUICK PATH TO YOUR GRAVES DUG PAVED WITH lunacy and my own broken sanity you crazy ass bastard! Constantly putting the life of your crew...in.... .....danger.....